Colbert tribute to Steve Jobs | Hacker News Reader

Colbert tribute to Steve Jobs

techcrunch.com

482 pointsjasontan53 comments

One of my favorite Benjamin Franklin quotes is:

    I have sometimes wish’d it had been my destiny to have 
    been born two or three centuries hence.

I wonder if Steve Jobs felt the same way. I would like to believe that the visionary that he was, his peaceful end was comforted by the fact that all that he envisioned was all on the right path. His few dreams that were not already made reality would soon reach millions. Not only that, but millions if not billions of people around the world now understand his vision, not just the beauty and application of his products, but the implications of a future of grand dreams and great taste.

I will forever regret never meeting the man. But I was never worth his time.

Now he has all the time in the world to relax with the greats: http://bit.ly/ng7PmU

He gave us platforms. Now it's in our hands.

---

Steve knew his calling and thus the world took so much of his precious time. Less than 60 years of life: We shall forever make the best of it as he rests in peace.

The clip affected me more than anything thus far. I think I'm ready to move on now, he gave so much but the world demands so much more. For now, I think I'm done up-voting Steve Jobs.

It's the comedians that always say it best.

Colbert's short little clip here (especially the very powerful ending) and the Onion's article are the two most touching pieces I've read on Steve Jobs.

It reminds me of the Onion's "Holy Fucking Shit" piece after September 11th. That did a lot to snap Americans back to reality and help us mourn.

Has it always been the case that the funny people are the best at helping us (group, nation, community) mourn? Or is just that, these days, the wisest and people (in media) happen to be comedians?

edit: grammar

I thought Obama's words about Steve's death were quite touching. I'll just quote the last paragraph:

"The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him."

Just the mere fact that Obama would make a statement is touching. Did any tech leader before Steve Jobs receive such a tribute? I'm curious.

"FOR TWENTY-TWO years, the United States has been the freely-chosen home of Albert Einstein. For fifteen years, he has been a citizen of the United States by his own free and deliberate choice. Americans welcomed him here. Americans were proud, too, that he sought and found here a climate of freedom in his search for knowledge and truth.

No other man contributed so much to the vast expansion of twentieth century knowledge. Yet no other man was more modest in the possession of the power that is knowledge, more sure that power without wisdom is deadly. To all who live in the nuclear age, Albert Einstein exemplified the mighty creative ability of the individual in a free society."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 18 April 1955.

Thomas A. Edison. They even briefly considered shutting down the entire U.S. Power Grid for a 1 minute.

The Wright Brothers have a national day of observation each year (Dec. 17).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Brothers_Day

That's a great find, I missed all those articles. This one was touching, especially at the end: http://www.theonion.com/articles/god-angrily-clarifies-dont-...

Link to one from The Onion referring to Steve Jobs.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/last-american-who-knew-what...

I remember reading somewhere that comedians tend to have above average IQs.

Stephen Colbert in particular is nothing short of a genius.

NU grad.

Good comedians speak the truth that is apparent, but is possibly not being said. Breaking social morays and speaking freely is more of the comedians' strongest weapons.

'mores', 'norms' would read better.

Less pedantry would read better :-P

I watched Jon Stewart's response to 9/11 on the night that it aired.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-20-2001/sept...

There's always something touching about seeing funny people be completely raw and out of character. Or rather, for the first time, you see their real character.

I was under the impression that the Onion was poking fun at the hyperbolic eulogies to Jobs.

This comment of mine is a bit off topic, since its not related to Steve Jobs:

I'm from Argentina and I've been watching Colbert and Jon Stewart for about 3 years now. I'm simply amazed every day when I see both shows. There's nothing I would like more than to see this format of television being brought to Argentina, but I doubt it.

What I want to say is: People in the US, you are VERY lucky for having these shows on air. Please, don't take them for granted. Treasure them!!!

I think the same but changing the context to Mexico.

we do

Do shows sporting this kind of incisive deadpan exist in the Spanish-speaking world? I've been interested.

Really choked up in those final few seconds. It felt sincere. Very classy.

Yeah, it did. I watched it a few times to see if I could put my finger on what it was that made it come across that way, and I'm still not sure I can.

It gets me right when the live audience realizes that it's not a joke, and falls completely silent. He can barely keep it together on his last few lines.

His face changes. He drops the character. That's what gets me. He never does that.

I think it was because they didn't do the outro music, and the audience didn't clap and cheer. Just a straight fade out.

The TechCrunch video didn't work here on my iPad, I assume it's flash.

There's one on Gawker which works: http://gawker.com/5847556/watch-stephen-colberts-tribute-to-...

Edit: s/it/it's

The video on the link to Colbert's site from the TechCrunch article worked just fine on my iPad.

I've been dry eyed the past two days, but this put me over the edge. Classy, Colbert. Classy...

Same here. It was really unexpected, suddenly I went from laughing to almost crying like a baby.

Very good delivery. I like how he very tactfully conveyed, maybe not stories about the man or his accomplishments, but how it marks the end of those contributions-- there won't be any more one liner emails, new product announcements, etc. that the tech industry has become so accustomed to over the years. It's a new era now. I wonder how we'll come to define it.

one of the better ones, in my opinion.

There was something particularly touching about this. I think it was the words "Thank You", where you felt it wasn't coming from "The Colbert Report" Colbert, but the actual Stephen Colbert himself.

How can I watch this clip in Canada? :(

the link by rlivsey on gawker works. http://gawker.com/5847556/watch-stephen-colberts-tribute-to-...

It's very easy.

1. Mute your volume.

2. Go to http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca

3. Struggle to find the Videos link, and click it.

4. Then try to find the Colbert Report link, and click that.

5. Click on the show for Oct 6.

6. Go do something else while the ads play.

7. When the show starts up, drag the slider all the way to the right.

8. Go do something else while the same ads play again.

9. When the second segment starts up, drag the slider all the way to the right again.

10. Go do something else while the same ads play a third time.

11. When the third segment starts up, drag the slider all the way to the right again.

12. Go do something else while the ads play.

13. When the closing segment starts up, unmute and try to enjoy it.

Brought to you by Bell Media.

What a mess. Finally found the section. For the next person who wants less of a headache, just load Part 3. The Jobs tribute is in there.

This post on reddit usually gets linked to when this question comes up over there: http://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/8zjv7/instructions_o...

And it works wonderfully well. Thanks for posting it here; it's unlikely that I'd ever wade through Reddit to stumble across it myself.

Fire up an EC2 micro instance and tunnel through it for a few minutes. It'll cost you two cents.

The part where he is trying to "sexually" lick the ipad is hilarious!

In the studio, of course, it'd be even funnier to watch, because he'd be licking the air.

It is touching to see the human element from idols who have always put on a public face. In this case, Colbert's character put away for a moment, which let you see the person behind the mask. Steve Job's death adds the human element to his legendary career and persona, which is what has captivated me the most. I look forward to reading Steve Job's biography to better understand one of the people that I most admire.

Notice too the extremely slow push-in on the camera when Colbert gets sincere. There's a bit of cinematic wizardry at play to make it extra poignant. It emphasizes that Colbert was truly breaking character - the entire show broke character in a sense, by using some non-standard direction.

Anyone got a version that's viewable outside the US?

Try Firefox + the Modify Headers extension. Ahem.

The Gawker link posted somewhere else in the thread works too. Too bad it's gawker...sigh

This one works for me: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/39918...

If you click Learn More in SJ's bio on TC, it says things like "Steve Jobs added a position at Pixar."

Is this for real, or is this a scammy word game Crunchbase plays to add credence to the entries?

Did he really type those 2 lines using 2 thumbs in 7 seconds?

Yes! :)

That was awesome.

Quick wit. Deft touch. Well done.

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